Support Recruitment Training Material

Recruitment Process
What is Recruitment?

Recruitment is a process of identifying, screening, shortlisting and hiring potential resource for
filling up the vacant positions in an organization. It is a core function of Human Resource
Management and process of choosing the right person for the right position and at the right time. It
also refers to the process of attracting, selecting, and appointing potential candidates to meet the
organization’s resource requirements.

The hiring of the candidates can be done internally i.e., within the organization, or from external
sources. And the process should be performed within a time constraint and it should be cost
effective.

Importance of Recruitment
Recruitment is one of the most fundamental activities of the HR team. If the recruitment process is
efficient, then

 The organization gets happier and more productive employees

 Attrition rate reduces.

 It builds a good workplace environment with good employee relationships.

 It results in overall growth of the organization

 It links the potential employees with the employers

  It helps in creating a talent pool of prospective candidates, which enables in selecting the right
candidates for the right job as per the organizational needs.

What is sourcing?

A sourcing is a strategy by which viable candidates are identified by organizations with a hiring need
or by the executive recruiters or search consultants who have been hired by those organizations. This
strategy is composed of multiple candidate sourcing techniques, which are typically used in
combination to maximize results.

Basically, there is more than one recruitment sourcing method. The way in which these methods are
used depends upon a wide array of factors, some of which include:

 The types of candidates needed

 The preferences of the hiring authorities or recruiters

 Past success (or lack of success) using the method

 The resources at the disposal of the person (or people) utilizing the strategy

 The personnel available to utilize the strategy

And the list goes on and on. The point is this: an overriding talent sourcing strategy is composed of
individual candidate sourcing techniques. The way in which the overriding strategy is composed
depends at least in part on the factors listed above.

Best sourcing techniques for recruiters

Okay, so now that we know what a recruitment sourcing strategy is and how it’s composed of
multiple candidate sourcing techniques, what are some of those techniques?

1 - Sourcing candidates through a recruiting database

Of course, many hiring authorities and recruiters (both in-house and third-part) maintain their own
recruiting database of candidates. When these hiring authorities and recruiters have a job order,
they often automatically check their own database first as a way of sourcing candidates. Of course,
the better your recruiting application tracking system is, the more quickly you’ll find the
candidates you need.

2 - Sourcing candidates through social media

LinkedIn has become all the rage during the last several years, as countless companies and recruiters
have added it to their talent sourcing strategy. They “camp out” within the social media platform on
an almost daily, hoping to source high-quality candidates and then recruit them. While it’s true that
they also use other social media platforms for sourcing, LinkedIn is most definitely the most effective
and most popular method of sourcing candidates through social media.

3 - Sourcing candidates through online job postings

It seems almost everybody does this, right? Well, while just about every company does it, not all
recruiters do. There is still a contingent of search consultants that refuse to add job posting boards
and job board integration to their candidate sourcing methods. One reason is that online job
postings usually attract active job seekers but aren’t great passive recruiting strategies. The latter are
usually top performers at their current employer, are busy and compensated well, and aren’t even
looking at online job postings.

So do job boards really work? The effectiveness of this candidate sourcing method depends on who
you ask.

In addition to searching candidates that have applied to job board postings, try a resume search using
Boolean search methods which are explained with examples in the next section because many people
use tech spaces to find their dream jobs. Moreover, candidates will have their own websites that
frequently host an updated copy of their resume.
4 - Sourcing candidates via referrals

Now this is one of the old-school sourcing strategies for recruiters that never actually gets old. That’s
because it’s so darn effective. Organizations have official employee referral programs whereby
employees are paid a referral bonus if they refer a candidate who is actually hired. Recruiters also
employ such methods of sourcing. Offering a referral fee to candidates that suggest friends or
colleagues that are later placed successfully is a very viable technique. The best place to find more
candidates like the one you just placed is to ask that individual who they know.

5 - Sourcing candidates from within the organization

This is a technique that organizations often employ, especially if they’re heavy into succession
planning. Of course, with this method, the organization does not need the services of a third-party
recruiter. That’s because the talent is right there within the company. However, the talent still needs
to be convinced to make a move, even though it’s with their current employer.

6 - Sourcing candidates through a recruiter network

We are currently in the midst of a “candidate’s” market.” That means candidates have the upper hand
in the marketplace. That means the really good candidates are interviewing with more than one
company, they’re often receiving multiple offers of employment, and they have plenty of options
from which to choose. On the other hand, we have hiring managers and authorities who never seem
to find the candidate they want. A recruiting network can provide a solution, since the recruiters
within the network share candidates and job orders.

Boolean Search Basics

Based on George Boole’s mathematical theory in which all variables are either ‘true’ or ‘false’,
Boolean search is one of the best sourcing tools for recruiters. The definition of Boolean search is
that it’s a type of search that allows users to combine keywords with operators such as AND, NOT
and OR to produce more relevant results.
Here are the basic operators for Boolean search strings for recruiters:

AND

When you want to include two (or more) criteria in your search, the operator AND narrows down
your search. For example, a Boolean search string for recruiting Android developers should include
‘developer AND android’. This will produce results that include both keywords.

A AND B |  A ∩ B

OR

The OR operator, on the other hand, allows us to expand our Boolean search results. People might
use different words to say the same thing. OR is particularly useful for synonyms, like ‘bank OR
finance OR financial.’

A OR B |  A ∪ B
NOT

The NOT operator excludes unwanted terms from your Google sourcing search. Instead of NOT, you
could also use the minus symbol followed by your unwanted term without leaving a space (e.g. ‘NOT
recruiter’ or ‘-recruiter.’)

A NOT B |  A – B

Brackets ()

You can use brackets to group multiple search strings and set your priorities. This will come in
handy, as most candidate searches are complex and combine different keywords. For example,
‘(developer OR designer) AND Java’ indicates that Java knowledge is a must-have both for
developers and designers. But, in a ‘designer OR (developer AND Java)’ search, Java knowledge is
important only for the developers you’re looking for – not the designers.
 (A OR B) AND C |  (A∪B) ∩ C

Quotation marks “ “

If you want search engines to consider the phrase you’re searching for as a complete phrase, you
should put it in quotation marks. For example, leaving a blank space between ‘customer’ and
‘service’ will provide pages that contain both of the words ‘customer’ and ‘service,’ but not
necessarily together. You should type “customer service” to get more relevant results when sourcing
passive candidates.

How recruiters can use Boolean commands

Using Boolean search will improve your search results and eventually get you closer to your potential
candidates. Crafting effective commands can be a little tricky, at first, if you’re not familiar with
Boolean logic. Here’s a short guide to help you with common searches.

‘site:’

A site: search is also known as an x-ray search. You can search through a specific site for candidates
with your desired skill set or any additional details that are a top priority for you. The key here is to
look in the right place. LinkedIn is useful to search for all kinds of professionals, but for more
targeted searches you should crawl niche websites instead.

site:behance.com “digital art” “boston”

site:dribble.com (logo AND designer) boston

 site:github.com (london AND ruby AND developer) - jobs
AND, OR

When searching, you need to think from your ideal candidate’s point of view. Let’s say you want to
hire a Software developer. If you only look for ‘Web developer’ you’ll probably miss a lot of good
profiles that use a different title, like ‘Software developer’ or ‘Web programmer.’ You could
combine AND and OR commands to search multiple terms.

site:linkedin.com (web OR software) AND (developer OR programmer)

The wild card (*)

You could use an asterisk (*) to get more results for the term you’re looking for. For example,
account* will provide you with results both for accounting and accountant. Let’s say you’re looking
for writers or counselors with an expertise in business investment. Medium is a good place to start
looking; you just need to search for posts included related terms.

site:medium.com(invest* OR economic* OR fund”

If you’re searching specific job titles on LinkedIn, the asterisk could help you create a shorter string.
For example, you could type ‘administr*’ instead of ‘administrative OR administrator OR
administration’ and get the same results. Likewise, ‘recruit*’ is a simpler alternative of ‘recruiter OR
recruiting OR recruitment.’

‘intitle:’ or ‘inurl:’

Most people name their resume files using the word ‘resume.’ So, if you want to search Google for
candidates’ resumes, it’s best to look for pages that include this word in their title or URL.

(intitle:resume OR cv OR vitae) PHP Boston -jobs -job

(inurl:resume OR cv OR vitae) PHP Boston -jobs -job

Be careful of false positive results

Even if you’ve crafted the perfect Boolean search string, take a moment to double-check your results.
A quick search can lead to false positive results. For example, if you’re looking for a Marketing
Manager in Boston, you’ll probably find professionals who don’t actually live in Boston, but could
have studied there, lived in the past or simply wrote a blog post about marketing trends in Boston
companies.

Invest some time, hone your research skills and don’t rely on the first results that pop up. Taking the
time to refine your Boolean search strategy will make your search for candidates a whole lot easier.

Our Most Popular Job Communities

Search our most popular Job Communities by Location or Job Type

- Accounting - Executive - Manufacturing

- Admin & Clerical - Franchise - Non Profit
- Banking & Finance - Government - Part time
- Business Opportunities - Health Care - Retail
- Contract & Freelance - Hospitality - Sales & Marketing
- Customer Services - Human Resources - Science & Biotech
- Diversity Opportunities - Information Technology - Transporation
- Engineering - Internships & Colleges

Our Most Popular Job Categories

Start your search by using any of the following job categories
- Accounting - General Business - Other
- Admin & Clerical - General Labor - Pharmaceutical
- Automotive - Government - Professional Services
- Banking - Grocery - Purchasing - Procurment
- Biotech - Health Care - QA-Quality Control
- Broadcast - Journalism - Hotel – Hospitality - Real Estate
- Business Development - Human Resources - Research
- Construction - Information Technology - Restaurant – Food Service
-Consultant - Installation- Maintain- Repair - Retail
-Customer Service - Insurance - Sales
- Design - Inventory - Science
- Distribution- Shipping - Legal - Skilled Labor - Trades
- Education – Teaching - Legal Admin - Strategy - Planning
- Engineering - Management - Supply Chain
- Entry Level – New Grad - Manufacturing - Telecommunications
- Executive - Marketing - Training
- Facilities - Media-Journalism-Newspaper - Transportation
- Finance - Nonprofit- Social Services - Warehouse
- Franchise - Nurse

Search Criteria Techniques

Search strings are created based on the JOB description with “must have” and “good to have”.

Before we go any further, it is important to review the method by which we will build our Boolean
search strings. In general, when in doubt, start by creating lists of must-haves and helpful-to-haves,
then plug each of those qualities into the following formula.

(“Must-Have” AND “Must-Have”...) AND (“Helpful-to-Have” OR “Helpful-to-Have”...)

With this formula in hand, we can move on to using Boolean search strings to help us find great
front-end developers. We previously discussed how to attract and recruit front-end developers in
great length, but if you’re just beginning your search for someone to work on your website, here are a
few examples of qualifications a hiring manager might ask you to identify in candidates:

For Front-End Developer, “Must-Have” skills are: (x)HTML, HTML5, CSS, jQuery, Word press,
Python, “Helpful-to-Have” skills are git, subversion, mercurial, LESS, SASS, Expression Engine
Below is the Boolean String:

 ("xHTML" AND "HTML5" AND "CSS" AND "jQuery" AND "Wordpress") AND "Python"
AND ("git" OR "subversion" OR "mercurial" OR "LESS" OR "SASS" OR "Expression
Engine")

For Mobile Developer, “Must-Have” skills are Objective-C, iOS, Android, “Helpful-to-Have”
skills are JSON, HTML5, Javascript

Below is the Boolean String:

 ("ObjectiveC" AND "ios" AND "Android") AND ("JSON" OR "HTML5" OR "Javascript")

For Full Stack Engineer, “Must-Have” skills are Javascript, PHP, SQL, HTML, CSS, linux and
CSS3, “Helpful-to-Have” skills are Tomcat or Apache

Below is the Boolean String:

 ("Javascript" AND "PHP" AND "SQL" AND "HTML" AND "CSS" AND "linux" AND
"CSS3") AND ("Tomcat" OR "Apache")

Understanding the quality of profiles:

1. Screening:

Resume screening is the process of determining whether a candidate is qualified for a role based on
his or her education, experience, and other information captured on their resume.

In a nutshell, it’s a form of pattern matching between a job’s requirements and the qualifications of a
candidate based on their resume.

The goal of screening resumes is to decide whether to move a candidate forward – usually onto an
interview – or to reject them.

2. Identify the Skill type:

We have different categories of skills

  Vanilla Skills -

In simple words this skills are the basic skills commonly found. Example skills - JAVA,
DOT NET, Network, SAP,JD Edwards, people soft, oracle, e-commerce (all non it like sales,
executives).

 Niche Skills -

In simple words this refers to specialized skills in any particular area, in few cases the skill is
rarely found and not used in many companies hence we don’t find the pool availability but
that skill is also a key area for the project. Niche role depends on the organization’s core
competencies and operating environment. A good example of a niche role would be that of a
Java professional in a manufacturing company, or a telecom professional in a Big 4 firm.

Example Skills- Remedy, Congo’s, Tandem, Ruby on Rails, Node.js KANA, HANA, DATA
SCIENCE etc.,.

3. Titles:

A job title is a term that describes in a few words or less the position held by an employee.
Depending on the job, a job title can describe the level of the position or the responsibilities of the
person holding the position. For example, job titles that include the terms executive, manager,
director, chief, supervisor, etc. Are typically used for management jobs. In IT jobs software
engineer, developer, development manager, architect etc. Other job titles reflect what the person does
on the job, e.g., chef, accountant, housekeeper, social media specialist, programmer, guest services
coordinator, mechanic, etc. Some job titles reveal both the job level and the job responsibilities, such
as head chef, lead accountant, electrical superintendent, marketing manager, etc.

4. Company:
When a recruiter is screening the resume the best point for a recruiter to look at is the type of
company the candidate is working. This will also help us to understand the kind of the role he will be
doing.
 Product Company
 Service Company
Startup Company, mid-size company, CMM Level x Company. Here the kind of companies will help
us to identify the candidate will be a fit for the position we are looking. Product based companies are
those that creates some products like Oracle, Adobe are product based companies. Service based
companies are those that works on these products to provide service to the client.
For Example: TCS, Wipro etc are service based companies. They are using Oracle etc for various
purposes. Suppose govt. wants its any unit to be fully digitized, wants to implement ERP or Payroll
system, then Govt will ask any service based company to provide this service.

Ex: TCS or Wipro uses Oracle products to implement ERP in various govt offices.

5. Education:
Education is another key point to identify the best resource. This differs from specific company to
company as they have they own limitations in identifying the resource. We need to identify from
which level of campus the resource is graduated. This will help us to identify the quality of the
resource.
 Is he from a premium institute/ university /autonomous college?
Well in every job profile the education would be a mandatory key point for the resource, but
not in every job profile the organizations look for a premium college resources. In general,
job profiles specify BE or B Tech as mandatory, but in few job profiles any grad/ masters
would work. But few job profiles need only resources from premium colleges based on the
company profile.
Types of institutes available in India
 Premium Institutes :
◦ IIT – Indian Institute of Technology

◦ IIIT- International Institute of Information Technology

◦ NIT – National Institutes of Technology

◦ BITS – Birla Institute of Technology and Science

 ◦ VIT – Vellore Institute of Technology

◦ University of Delhi
◦ University of Calcutta

 Autonomous colleges:
◦ Nizam College, Kirlosakar, Christ, Xavier’s etc.
6. Projects:
Another key area of the screening part to identify what kind of projects the resource has been
working through his/her experiences. It might include projects such as Development project, support
project or Administration project or Architect involved in Designing of the tool etc.,. Projects are
company specific, so it varies from company to company based. Moreover, projects can be long term
(6 months - 1 year or more) or short term basis (1 - 3 months) too. We need to speak to candidates for
the better understanding of projects and the duration they spent on every project and technologies
used in accomplishing the project. In addition, information from the candidates can be obtained
regarding his contribution in the project. The duration of the project also helps in determining the
expertize and quality of the resource.

7. Location:
Every job profiles looks for resources in different location, we need to identify the resource in
required location and if the pool is not available in the required location then we need to look for the
resources who is based from the same location but working in another location. So we can sell the
opportunity by telling that he can come back to his base location and he should be happy to come
back to the base location. We can also identify the resources from nearby that region who will be
ready to move that place as it is very near to they place.

8. Must Have:
Must have in the job description is something that is essential for the profile and the resource must
have experience on the must haves. Must have skills are something which are playing a key role in
job profile and those are some thing if he/she have real time experience only will be a right fit and
not knowledge on the skills.

9. Probability of Relocation:
Can check on the probability of the relocation with resource based on the opportunity we are offering
to him and benefits we can provide if he is ready to relocate. In general, resources mention “for the
right opportunity I am definitely willing to relocate”, which describes whether the resource is willing
to relocate for the sake of the getting a good opportunity.

10. Industry Types:

In industry types we need to see if the job is demanding from the same industry or open to hire from
any type of industry usually it is like the experienced resource would be convenient to work in same
industry until unless he is keen changing his industry types.
Please refer to the table of industries to know about industries available.

11. Employment History:

This is very important area to identify if the candidate is the right fit for the role. From the
information provided by candidates regarding experience/s we need to assess them on the kind of
companies and nature of the job.
 Few resources usually spend a long time for more than 3+ in a company and then look for
change which is a genuine move for a career betterment.
 Few resources work on contractual jobs which usually ends in 6 months to 1years time, hence
they have no option then changing the job. Here we need to clearly asses the candidate and
identify as and why he not been hired for permanent employment.
 Few resources keep changing jobs and not stable in any job they might be looking for more
salary or may be attitude issue and can be any other reason, we need to check in detail
 Few work with fake experience so we need to check the company names and website and
probe candidates as if you have someone who is working in that company and check if he
knows them. Even we should be able to assess what he is talking and what is reflecting the
resume are same or not if it is a fake he might do a mistake by going somewhere wrong.